By John Klyce

Austin Cotton plodded home in the summer heat, exhausted.

As a bead of sweat trickled down his cheek, the carpenter raised his coarse, blue-collar hands to his head, shielding his eyes from the sun’s unforgiving rays.

It was May 1 of 1866 in Memphis, Tennessee, and Cotton, a former slave, struggled through his first year of freedom. As he passed Hollowell’s Grocery, Cotton heard a scream.

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